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Antec 1100 Chassis Review

Closer Look:

Out of the box finally, we can take a look at what Antec and their box has promised us. Upon first impressions, I’m anything but disappointed – this chassis just looks nice. The front of the case is a nice height and quite a bit fatter than what I’m used to seeing, but it fits. The mesh front also allows for ease of cleaning and nice airflow. Antec proudly writes their name at the bottom with an aluminum-coated plastic carving – it’s subtle and doesn’t take over the chassis. As for the I/O panel, we’ll talk about that in a little bit.

On the rear panel of the chassis, we find two grommets for water inlet/outlet – they can also be used to route random connectors in and out of the chassis. The entire chassis is finished in a black powder coating, giving it a nice clean appearance that looks ready to fit in anywhere you choose to place it. The entire back panel has a nice mesh, once again increasing airflow.

Taking a look at the sides, I’m quite happy. Personally, I love chassis with large windows – I like to show off my running hardware, even when it isn’t all that impressive. On the Eleven Hundred, the window takes up over half the side panel in width and nearly the full size in height. It also includes two pre-drilled 120 mm fan spots for the addition of your own fans and aid cooling without hampering the view too much. The other panel behind the motherboard tray has a single 120 mm fan location for cooling from the back. This is perhaps one feature that most chassis still don’t provide today. It’s a simple addition and placing a fan here should bring your temps down even more.

With another full look at the case, front to back, you can’t deny that this is one excellent-looking enclosure. The full paint job both inside and out, like most chassis today, completes the look on the build. Overall, it is a very solid case. I’m not worried about any structural integrity issues either, as this one seems like it would almost make a good stool if I wasn’t going to put my precious hardware inside.

Back to that promised front I/O panel, we find the front lip supporting 2 x 3.0 USB and 2 x 2.0 USB ports, which can be easily connected to your motherboard. The usual headphone and mic jacks are also included without the annoying pink and green plug connector. After a few uses, you should be able to figure out the placement of your mic and headphones inputs – if you can’t do this, then this case might require you to draw some colored dots above the jack. It’s okay though; I won’t make fun of you too much for that. The power and reset buttons are right on top and click with a nice little press. The reset is a relatively smaller-sized button, as always, to keep you from that unintended reboot. I really like its overall look and can’t wait to get my hardware inside.